One day, Eloise Klein Healy would like to read her poems aloud in a sports arena.

Healy, who became the first poet laureate of Los Angeles Dec. 7 and is openly lesbian, envisions a future where the public is as captivated by good literary work as by a baseball or football game.

“Imagine reading before 42,000 people, with all of it up on a Jumbo-tron,” she said in a recent interview. “That’s what I would like to do someday, to bring poetry to places it’s never been.”

The position of poet laureate was created earlier this year by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who wanted to highlight the city’s rich arts and culture scene. The mayor appointed a panel, which sorted through more than 40 entries before recommending Healy and two other finalists. Villaraigosa made the final selection.

“As the arts and culture capital of the world, Los Angeles’ 4 million residents and 26 million annual visitors deserve a poet laureate able to elegantly express the beauty of our city in words,” Villaraigosa said.

Healy, 69, lives in Sherman Oaks. As poet laureate, she will have to write some works featuring Los Angeles, hold readings in the city and speak about the poetry community in her travels.

“Fortunately, I have a book coming out in February, so I will be able to fulfill that as I travel,” Healy said.

The new book, “A Wild Surmise, New and Selected Poems and Recordings,” has a unique feature where readers can access recordings through QR codes embedded in the books. If they do not have mobile devices capable of reading the QR codes, they can go to her website to hear the poems.